1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computerized picture reprocessing techniques and, more particularly, to the modification of colors of digitized picture stock by the application of mathematical models which are representative of photographic filters.
2. Description of Related Art
Film colorization, that is, colorizing black-and-white motion pictures, turned the film industry on its side in the mid-1980s. With less than adequate color selection and limited hardware and software capabilities, early attempts at colorizing notable black-and-white- film classics such as "Casablanca" and "The Big Sleep" produced less than favorable results, resulting in muddy hues that didn't always stick to the objects they were meant to color. Indeed, many film purists likened colorization to vandalism and defacement. However, in the 1990s a demand was created by the skyrocketing cost of producing new movies and television shows coupled with the burgeoning demand for movies and television shows to fill up time slots on the 500 or so cable channels, a demand which has been an incentive for colorizers to advance their craft to much higher levels of quality.
Colorizers have also applied their craft to more varied fields, fields which do not necessarily involve original black-and-white picture stock. For example, in the past if a director of a picture were unhappy with the color of a particular shot, the director would have had to reshoot the shot, which would have incurred high production costs. Further, commercial artists and advertisers may desire to intensify particular aspects of television commercials to be more appealing to consumers of target markets. Other special color effects may also be desired for a particular film, video, or television show, particularly music videos which are often intended for the less conservative teenage and young adult audience.
Other applications for the modification of digitized picture stock include the modification of the color of an entire digitized frame of the stock. For example, if a particular shot is shot during the day and the director later desires to have the shot be a night shot, then the entire shot would have to be reshot, incurring high costs. Furthermore, if a director of photography mistakenly used an improper filter or no filter at all for a particular shot, the shot would have to be completely redone with the desired filtered on the camera.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide filtering techniques for modifying digitized picture stock.